How single tenure’ll affect Jonathan, first term govs –Ekweremadu

[Mirror]

Deputy Senate President and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Ike Ekeremadu, yesterday said that President Goodluck Jonathan and first time governors will not benefit from the proposed six-year single tenure recommended by his committee if it receive the approval of the two-third majority of the national and state assemblies and a new constitution comes into effect in 2015.

He said the recommendation was made by his committee so that senators would not be accused by the public of conniving with the executive to extend their tenure.

Ekweremadu, who made this clarification yesterday while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja, also explained why his committee recommended that the new constitution would not require presidential assent to become law.

According to him, the committee drew inspiration from the American system, which also does not require presidential assent before an amendment becomes law and operational.

"We believe strongly that constitutional amendment does not require presidential assent. We are still in court. But let me state clearly that our position on that was informed by the fact that America that has a similar constitutional provision like ours, the President doesn't sign amendment and when they did the first amendment, it was also as contentious as ours," he explained.

Besides, Ekweremadu said by receiving the consent of the two-third of the state assemblies and the National Assembly it is enough to override presidential assent.

The Deputy Senate President recalled that when President Goodluck Jonathan first came up with the idea of a six-year single tenure, he was accused of plotting to elongate his stay in office.

The lawmaker said by not flowing along with the President on his proposal, the committee felt it was better for incumbent heads of the executive to make a sacrifice by leaving the office after a single term of four years than to contest again for six years thereby spending 10 years in office instead of eight years.

He said: "You will recall that the President was the first person to call for a single tenure of six-years. When he did so, he was accused of originating the idea because he wanted to elongate his stay in office.

"So, we don't want Nigerians to say that we colluded with him to elongate his stay in office because somebody who ought to spend eight years in office will now spend 10 years. We thought it was better for somebody to make a sacrifice instead of staying in office for 10 years."

Commenting on the recommendation that a vicepresident or deputy governor who succeeds his dead principal is barred from standing for election after serving out the tenure of his or her former principal, Ekweremadu said if the former is allowed to stand for election, the whole essence of a single tenure would have been defeated, since it is usually the search for re-election that overheats the system.

According to the lawmaker, rather than such people seeking another election, they should rather have cause to be grateful that they had served at the top echelon of government and by so doing, posterity would remember them to be among those who had been privileged to occupy such offices.

He argued that if such persons were not barred from contesting elections, the polity would be heated, noting that even if they were not interested in standing for elections, external forces within and outside the government could also pressure them to do so.

"Therefore, institutional system would have been damaged. So, there is no need for you to scheme for a comeback to avoid overheating the polity," he insisted.

According to Ekweremadu such inhibition would enable such a person to concentrate on governance.

National Mirror